How to collect a deposit before you start a client project

Ask for a deposit of 20% to 50% in the proposal and contract, before any work starts, and make it payable from the same link where the client says yes. Most people only start doing this after one project where they worked for weeks, the client went quiet and nothing was paid.

Why a deposit works

A deposit does two jobs. It pays you for the early stretch of work, which is often the heaviest. And it sorts clients who are ready to commit from clients who are still shopping, because someone who hesitates at a reasonable deposit was probably going to hesitate at the final invoice too.

The risk is real. A Freelancers Union study found that one in two freelancers had trouble getting paid in 2014, and a 2022 survey of New York workers found that 62% had lost wages to nonpayment at least once in their career. Both are about freelancers, but the lesson holds for any small business that delivers first and bills later. Stripe describes advance invoicing as issuing a payment request before delivering the product or service, and says its main appeal is better financial predictability: early payment can cover materials and time before a project is finished.

How much to ask for

There is no single correct number, but there are common structures and each fits a different job.

Half upfront and half on delivery is the default for most project work. It splits the risk evenly and is widely understood, so you rarely have to defend it.

Full payment upfront suits small jobs, quick turnarounds and first-time clients. For a $300 logo tweak, billing twice is more admin than it is worth.

Milestone deposits suit larger projects. You break the work into stages and take a payment at the start of each one. The client is never far ahead of what they have paid for, and you are never far ahead of what you have been paid. Our guide to structuring milestone payments walks through how to split a budget.

For percentages, Stripe's guide to deposit invoices says 20% to 50% of the total price is often a good range. It suggests 20% for a simple, low-risk job, 50% for a custom, high-risk project and 25% for an ongoing service. It also notes that event venues often ask for 50% down, while freelancers tend to charge closer to 30%. A flat fee can work for small jobs, such as $100 to book a slot.

Whatever you choose, the principle matters more than the amount: you should be paid for some of the work before you have done all of it.

How to word the request

The awkwardness is almost always in your head. Businesses pay deposits constantly, and stating yours as normal practice is usually all it takes. Put it in the proposal and the contract, not in a separate "by the way" email, so it reads as your process and not a special demand.

Here is wording that works: "To reserve your start date, I take 50% upfront and the balance on delivery. Once the deposit is in, I block out the time and we can kick off."

Notice that it ties the deposit to something the client wants, which is you starting, not to suspicion. You are not asking permission to be paid. You are describing how the work begins.

Be clear about three things in writing. What the deposit covers, whether it comes off the final price (it should), and what happens to it if either side cancels. Refund and cancellation terms need care. In the UK, for example, a term can be unfair if it requires a consumer who fails to fulfil their obligations to pay a disproportionately high sum, under Schedule 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Labelling a deposit "non-refundable" does not settle the question by itself. Rules differ by country and by whether your client is a consumer or a business, so check your wording with your lawyer.

If a client pushes back hard on a standard deposit, treat it as information. It is far cheaper to learn someone is a payment risk before you start than after you have delivered.

When a deposit should be non-negotiable

Some situations call for a deposit every time.

A new client with no track record. A project with large upfront costs, such as stock, subcontractors or software. A tight timeline that means turning down other work. A client who found you through a channel where you share no context.

The higher your risk of doing work you can't recover, the more the deposit matters. Stripe's guide lists the same cases: paying for materials or labour before starting, reserving limited availability, long or phased projects, costly cancellations and new or higher-risk customers.

For regular clients with a long, clean history you may relax this. Do it on purpose and keep it written down, so it doesn't become an unspoken rule that someone argues about later.

The cleanest way to collect it

The friction in collecting a deposit is the same friction as any payment. If the client has to ask for your bank details, wait for them and log into a banking app, the deposit waits for a convenient moment. If you can send a deposit invoice with a pay button that runs through your own gateway, the money moves while the client is still in a "yes, let's start" frame of mind.

The smoothest version ties it to the rest of the setup. The client signs the contract, pays the deposit and the work begins, all from one link. A deposit is also just an invoice with the timing set to upfront, so the usual invoice details apply.

How Delivvo gets the deposit paid before work starts

Delivvo is built so the deposit is part of saying yes, not a second chase.

1. You send a quote built from your packages and add-ons, using the proposals tool.
2. On the Pro plan, the one-page close lets the client choose a package, sign the contract and pay the deposit on one page. Signing is typed or drawn, and each signature leaves a record with the time, IP and device plus an archived PDF.
3. Once they accept, Delivvo creates the client, the project, the contract, the invoice and the payment schedule for you. You don't copy anything between apps.
4. The payment schedule can split the total into up to 12 payments, so a 50/50 split or a three-stage milestone plan is a setting, not a spreadsheet.
5. The client pays through your own processor (Stripe, PayPal or Square). The money goes straight from the client to you.

Two things are worth knowing. Delivvo takes 0% of payments and is never the merchant of record, so a deposit isn't reduced by a platform cut (your gateway's own fees still apply). And the client opens everything from the portal without a password, using a one-time code, so there is no account to create before they can pay.

If you also want automatic reminders for the balance, late payment reminders go out at 7, 14 and 30 days and stop once the invoice is paid. Invoice numbers are sequential in your own format, and every invoice and contract carries a verification code anyone can check. Setup details are on the payment schedules page.

This sits inside Delivvo's CRM for service businesses. More on how payments work.

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